Future plans (not really)

Exam time is the best time to plan the future. The mounting pressure grabs hold of my neck and forces me to notice the real situation that I had been ignoring for months — my life is on fire — and there isn’t enough time to put out the flames. Hence, I resort to thinking of what will come after the exams, just to ease my mind.

I have picked out few nice novels to read during summer! I haven’t read anything since The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (December-January), which is sad because I had a lot of free time on my hands. I have borrowed hard copies from friends this time — not that I have anything against my kindle — I just wanted to go back to real paper for a while. I’m also planning to re-read my high-school favourite, A Tale of Two Cities. Hopefully, I’ll like it even better this time!

On that note, I feel it’s nice to experience both e-readers and real books. E-readers are awesome for travelling and for moments when I get a sudden urge to read a book that isn’t immediately available. On the other hand, real books are aesthetically more soothing. I naturally feel more committed to reading a book when I buy or borrow it; there is always a chance to end up reading and loving something random just because it is available and lying on the table.

I’m going to stay back at my hostel this summer, even though the journey to my summer internship would have been much easier from home. I will be spending a lot of time on the piano. Yes, I went ahead and bought one instead of waiting another year (I had mentioned in a previous post that I would). Actually, I convinced dad to buy it for me on the condition that I’ll pay him back in installments — but I stopped paying after two months and he didn’t protest, so it can be safely called a gift.

I am really enjoying learning it. I would prefer to have a real teacher, but for the time being, I’m sticking to Youtube videos and the inbuilt tutorials. Welcome to Jurassic Park is the first full piece that I’m attempting to learn, and so far I’ve covered one sheet out of eight. Previously, I learnt few short tunes like Deck the Halls, and an excerpt from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata (because, Nodame!). It is strange how the little nuances and intricacies in some music become visible only when you try to play them yourself.

Here is a short recording, from last month:

My other plans for summer include writing few short stories, sketching, preparing for NET, and talking a bit more to the girl I like, even though there isn’t any future there. I also plan to go cycling around the countryside and hopefully discover roads that I haven’t noticed yet. I love cycling!

That’s probably too much planning already, and I might end up not doing half of these things. But it is fun to think about summer. And I better not let my thoughts wander beyond that because lots of stressful and uncertain things follow: competitive exams, getting into a grad school, the actual future! I do know one thing for sure though: as soon as I start living in an apartment of my own, I’m getting a dog. I have picked out a name too — Hobbes!

Time to wrap up. I think this post should’ve been titled “A comprehensive guide on how to keep calm and make a mess of exams.”